Survey uncovers source of IT headaches

Compliance and security will be the biggest IT headaches for senior
executives over the next 18 months, according to a leading annual UK survey.

The exclusive ImageTrak 2005 study, which was produced by Accountancy
Age’s sister magazine Computing, found that regulation and
compliance requirements will significantly influence IT strategy in the finance
sector.

‘Compliance continues to affect the whole of our company, and a lot of
business change is driven by that,’ says John Worth, Prudential chief
information officer.

The research also suggests that maintaining a balance between accessibility
and security is an important consideration for public sector organisations.

‘The Data Protection and Freedom of Information Acts loom large over much of
what we want to do, particularly sharing information between departments in a
single authority, never mind across different ones,’ said Jonathan Anderson,
programme manager at Gloucestershire Electronic Partnership.

Some 97% of respondents ­ the same number as in last year’s survey ­ said
system security was a ‘very’ or ‘fairly important’ concern through 2006. And 95%
rated information security equally highly.

Computing head of research James Burckhardt said IT managers viewed security
as a priority because failures could expose them to close scrutiny.

‘A serious breach or denial of service attack could compromise critical
information and bring down corporate systems,’ said Burckhardt. But priorities
vary considerably between sectors, he added.

ImageTrak questioned more than 5,000 senior IT and finance managers about
their key technology issues and suppliers.